TV Verdict

Well it wasn’t the orgy of exposition that last week’s episode was, but “Deadlock” kept the focus firmly planted on the Final Five and their continuing misadventures, with a dollop of One Life to Live tossed in as well. Or maybe All My Children Would Be More Appropriate.

Spoileriffic spoilers ahead.

As last week’s installment came to a close, Ellen, newly resurrected and fresh off of a healthy disgorging of back story to Dean Stockwell, fled the Evil Cylons with Boomer. As this one opens, she lands at Galactica, much to the awe of her fellow Cylons, the consternation of Bill and the horny confusion of Saul.

And thus kicks off the love triangle that will govern the plot for this entire episode. Saul, of course, is shacking up with Caprica Six, who’s carrying the first pure Cylon offspring in her synthetic womb. When Ellen discovers the depths of Saul’s relationship with Six, the catfight starts, or rather, the Cylon equivalent of a catfight. Did the Centurions build cats while they were in the lab? Perhaps.

The other main plot arc is Baltar’s re-evaluation of his purpose as a grassroots Messiah. Thanks to the help of a newly manifested Six hallucination (?), he usurps control of the harem from an upstart young lady and strikes a deal with brass to outfit his people with big-ass guns. Or something.

Finally, Bill grapples with the fact that his beloved Galactica is getting slathered in Cylon ejaculate. This emotional struggle is exhibited by a selection of brief, hard-hitting scenes featuring Edward James Olmos staring at arc welding with a grimace.

Another character-centric episode, “Deadlock” was dominated by Saul’s and Ellen’s issues. The soap opera elements were a tad over-the-top at some points (he didn’t love you enough to knock you up, eh?) but I actually liked that Ellen defaulted to the Manipulative Shrew setting; I prefer that character to the Mythical Goddess of the Cylons that was laid on super-thick during her interactions with Cavill last week.

I very much liked the exposure of Saul’s true love: his friendship with Bill. Their embrace when Saul’s baby died was one of the finest emotional moments of the season.

What’s next? Looks like the Cylons might be bugging out, but I have a suspicion that plan will change once their dastardly counterparts show up and start blasting and we finally get some dope space battles that have been sadly lacking thus far.